They say sunshine makes a great disinfectant. President Donald Trump told us so back in 2020.

While we know women didn’t ruin the workplace, a la that much mocked New York Times opinion piece, it might just turn out that some women are ruining POTUS’s workplace. Of course by “ruin” I mean shining a giant spotlight on Trump’s name in the more than 20,000 pages of documents, including emails mentioning him by name, turned over by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Honestly, women were doing a lot last Wednesday.

Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva, finally sworn in after waiting 50 days, kicked things off by signing the discharge petition to force a vote to compel the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. Incidentally, did you know that women who fought in the Mexican Revolution were often called “adelitas?” Grijalva represents 800,000 constituents and is the state’s first Chicana representative in Congress.

Meanwhile, Trump called Rep. Lauren Boebart, R-Colorado, to the White House to convince her to break with Democrats voting to release files on Jeffrey Epstein. Boebart wasn’t the only Republican woman getting attention from POTUS’s camp today. Reportedly, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace were contacted as well.

Nevada’s three Democratic representatives, Dina Titus, Stephen Horsford, and Susie Lee, were among the 218 signatures required on the discharge petition which will compel a vote. (What a relief after getting sold out by Democrat Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen on the government shutdown.)

Trump has wilted under pressure, announcing over the weekend that he would release the Epstein files. This is a potent reminder that bullies hate to be mocked. No doubt the escalating tension with not just Democrats in Congress but an increasing pack of Republicans defecting from his camp played a part. Or maybe it was the Bubba memes.

It‘s important to not lose sight of the real winners in all this. With the release of Epstein’s emails, this is a big moment for survivors of sexual violence, too.

As a rape survivor, I know firsthand how difficult it is to get justice. Most of us will never get our day in court, whether it’s the court of law or the court of public opinion. But all of us carry not only the trauma of our experiences but the societal weight of being disbelieved and shamed. This is why every time the light of truth shines on what perpetrators want to hide, it feels like a bell rings for justice. This time they can’t scurry away like roaches in the dark.

Today I am reminded of Gisèle Pelicot, the 72-year-old French woman who won her court case last year against the more than 50 men who raped her, including her husband. She stood on the court steps and said, “When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”

I am reminded of E. Jean Carroll, who won her case against Trump in 2023 in which the court found him liable for sexual abuse when he defamed her while talking about her allegation that he assaulted her in a dressing room. This ruling, and judgement for Trump to pay Carroll $5 million, was upheld in appeals court. Last week, he asked the Supreme Court to take up the case. Much like his relentless fight against paying SNAP benefits, Trump won’t stop trying to get out of paying Carroll what she’s due.

Most of all, I’m reminded of the press conferences and numerous interviews with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. The great machine that has conspired for decades to cover up Epstein’s villainy is unraveling now. Trump can’t surreptitiously schedule another military flyover of these 20,000 pages of documents. He can’t stop the memes on social media quoting Epstein agreeing with Kathy Ruemmler saying Trump is “so gross” and Epstein responding “worse in real life and upclose [sic].”

I think it’s hilarious that these historic villains so often make fun of Trump in these emails. The best jokes punch up, not down. To paraphrase Pelicot, these emails are powerful evidence that Trump deserves the shame, not Epstein’s victims.

The thing about being a survivor of sexual assault is that we are often not present in the stories about the crimes that happened to us. Partly, this is because victims get anonymity in court and in the media. This is important for the safety and welfare of victims, of course. Unfortunately, it does have the unintended consequence that we become invisible in our own narrative. The thing that rightly protects us, also alienates us from people’s empathy. People respond to people, not “Victim Number One.” However inconvenient this truth, we have to remember that the reason these emails and files and votes matter is people. The victims are very real people.

Epstein’s victims deserve justice. It is because of their incredible bravery that this whole house of cards may finally topple. I, for one, can’t wait for these victims — many of them women — to ruin this particular workplace.

I love the idea that after everything Trump and his clown car of grifters has done it’s not the 34 convictions, the payouts to porn stars, the insurrection, the plague deaths, the full-bodied fight against feeding children or anything else that gets him — it’s the women, stupid! Even better, it’s the survivors.

Like I used to say for years on my old blog, The Sin City Siren, survivors are warriors. Someone(s) tried to annihilate us — and we survived. We are still here. And there are so many of us that you are almost never in a room without (at least) one of us. If we were to stand up all at once, the ground would quake beneath our feet. Survivors are legion.

If Trump is ever to be ruined, I hope like hell it’s by one of us.

This was published by The Nevada Current on Nov. 18, 2025.